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Short Film on Yoshi Masuda by Mackenzie Sheppard

For a little while now I have been patiently waiting for the arrival of this short film, as the teaser has sat in our archives and I have passed email back and forth with Mackenzie the filmmaker. This isn’t a criticism by the way, I know these things take time and in my humble opinion this film has been more than worth the wait because Yoshi, the individual found at the heart of this piece, is such an incredibly inspirational chap.

For those of you who weren’t lucky enough to catch the teaser, Yoshi is a resident of Seto in Japan who is immensely passionate about the art of coffee making, you could in fact call him a master and many locally do. This is inspiring, however this isn’t why I’ve waited so eagerly to see this film, as Yoshi decided to use his passion to help rebuild the hearts and minds of local people who had lost their homes and livelihoods in the great east Japan tsunami.

You can’t change the lives of the masses overnight but people like Yoshi really make a difference on ground level, to the locals, you can just see in each of the gatherings the difference he is making. It’s this selfless attitude that I’m in awe of and I’m sure after watching this below many of you will agree with the statement that Yoshi is a bit of a hero.

It’s refreshing to hear stories like Yoshi’s and the community spirit that has brought together those working towards rebuilding Japan. Perhaps this is a lesson to all of us in the difference we can make for those around us, imagine if communities could work together like this without a natural disaster. With this in mind I’d like to leave you all to enjoy the film below, ending on a final note from the man himself: “a human voice, I would say is stronger than a tsunami” – Yoshi Masuda